


Where the Bells Are Always Ringing

by ApolloAttraction



Category: Call Down The Hawk - Fandom, Dreamer Trilogy, Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Call Down the Hawk Spoilers, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-24
Updated: 2020-01-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:00:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22390675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ApolloAttraction/pseuds/ApolloAttraction
Summary: Carmen knows better than to ask Liliana questions about the future, but there are so many things that she wants to know, not least of all where they stand with each other. In the aftermath of leaving the moderators, Carmen takes a chance on making the future come to her.I.e. my take on Carliana's first kiss.
Relationships: Carmen Farooq-Lane/Liliana
Comments: 14
Kudos: 30





	Where the Bells Are Always Ringing

Carmen Farooq-Lane sits on the curb with her head tucked into her hands. She’d done it. She’d left the Moderators. Not in the squeaky-clean way she’d imagined: completely absolved from any guilt in her brother’s crimes and with the world saved from any chance of apocalypse. No, she’d left like a hurricane. She’d freed two zeds, broken a painting frame across the back of Ramsay’s head, and put Liliana on the back of a motorcycle with a man she barely knew who promptly dumped the bike halfway down the highway. Whatever thoughts she’d had about feathers on water- steadiness and peace- had promptly given way to the frantic idea of minimizing disaster. Even that seemed too big, though.

“Here,” Liliana stops in front of her and holds out a cup of coffee.

Farooq-Lane takes the cup and turns it over slowly, letting the warmth sink into her cold hands. She stops when she sees her name, Carmen, written in a looping scrawl above the order. Dark roast. One sugar. No Cream. It was exactly the way she liked it. “Who bought this?”

Liliana pulls a lock of her long, red hair over her shoulder and pets it nervously. “I ordered it,” she says with her round mouth pinched into a frown. “But Adam had to buy it because our money is with the Moderators, still.”

“Well, thank you.” Carmen smiles at the drink before tipping it back and gulping it down. The smile stays with her once the cup is empty. At first, Liliana’s familiarity with Carmen had been unnerving, almost overwhelming. Now, when she felt most alone, the idea of Liliana ordering her a perfect coffee and telling the cashier her name made Carmen start to fluster.

Liliana sits down on the curb next to Carmen, pressing herself close to the other woman’s side. “It’s good to see you smile so soon,” she says softly. “I was worried it would take a long time.”

“Liliana,” Carmen’s smile smoothes back into a frown. “I just want you to know…you don’t have to stay here with me.”

Liliana startles. “I know that,” she says quickly.

Carmen looks away from her and pulls her knees up to her chest. “This is serious,” she says very firmly, even though she’s afraid to point it out. “If you stay here, the Moderators might think you had a hand in my mistakes. You should think about going back.”

Liliana puts a hand on Carmen’s shoulder and squeezes it. “I don’t think you made a mistake.” She waits until Carmen looks back to her to add, “And I think – very soon – that things will be okay.”

Carmen’s brows come down, settling anxiously above her eyes. She wants to ask how everything works out. She wants to know what happens next. But she knows from the time that she’s spent with Liliana that her future memories are only vague echoes to her until she has another vision. For all the questions she has, Carmen can’t bear the thought of Liliana having a vision right then.

“It will be okay,” Liliana repeats and lays her head onto Carmen’s shoulder, letting her hair cascade over Carmen, covering the boring, beige color of her rumpled suit.

Carmen takes a deep breath in, then slowly exhales. She picks up a strand of Liliana’s hair and starts to gently twist it into a braid. “I don’t want you to get hurt,” she admits softly.

Liliana stays quiet, which Carmen has come to understand means that she knows something upsetting.

“I don’t want you to get hurt _because_ of me.” Carmen tries again, more forcefully.

“It won’t happen that way,” Liliana tries to reassure her, but all it does is start a lump in Carmen’s throat.

Liliana sits back up and cups Carmen’s face in one hand, guiding her to meet her eyes. “I would follow you anywhere, Carmen,” the words are heavy with meaning.

Carmen blinks at her, feeling the full strangeness of Liliana’s familiarity again for the first time in a long time. She swallows thickly. “In the future…are we-“ She stops herself as her cheeks heat up. She has so many questions about everything Liliana sees in the future. Too many of those questions were about where she and Liliana stood with each other. Every day was filled with a thousand small moments that made her think…well, she always pushed the thought away as frivolous or hopeless. But she is weak now, torn down from the disaster of the day, and even weaker still when Liliana meets her unfinished question with a soft, distant look.

Liliana tucks a wild lock of Carmen’s hair behind her ear and leaves her fingers just below the shell of it, ghosting across Carmen’s neck. “I like you, Carmen,” she says very softly. “I-“ she flusters, her face turning pink as she stops herself.

Carmen’s heart stops beating at the words. She feels like there’s a confession coming, but Liliana bites her lip and looks away. If she waits, Liliana might say more, but all at once Carmen’s heart restarts and she’s too weak to wait it out. She leans in, pressing her lips to Liliana’s. When she pulls back, Liliana is staring at her with her mouth open in a perfect ‘o’ shape.

“Oh,” Carmen says, bringing up one hand to cover her face. “I’m sorry,” she says quickly. “I misread- I thought-“ she chokes on her own words. She had already made so many mistakes that day, it didn’t seem like one more would matter, but it did. Her heart was sinking. This was the worst. She closes her eyes so that she doesn’t have to look at Liliana’s shocked expression.

Liliana quietly pulls Carmen’s hand from her face and holds it gently between her own. When Carmen opens her eyes again, Liliana is smiling with her bright eyes cast down to their hands between them. She brings their clasped hands up to her mouth and presses a kiss to the back of Carmen’s knuckles. “This is the part I remembered,” she whispers. “I had forgotten the rest.” She looks back up to Carmen and gives her a quick kiss, just an impish peck of the lips, really. “Thank you for reminding me of it.”

Carmen blinks owlishly at her, then wraps her in her arms and pulls her close. “I’m so glad you’re here.” She presses her face against Liliana’s neck to hide how undone she is by the moment.

Liliana runs a hand up her back and kisses the side of her head. “Always,” she says, and again the word is full of unknowns that Carmen can’t begin to guess, but this time she knows they’ll be together in those unknown moments and that’s enough.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm certain that once the 2nd and 3rd books come out, this will be so far from canon. However, they're too cute and I couldn't resist. 
> 
> The title is stolen from one of Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Gilbert, where the full quote reads: "Come with me this morning to the church within our hearts, where the bells are always ringing, and the preacher whose name is Love — shall intercede for us!”"


End file.
